$20 New York City-Inspired FOTD

A recent post on MakeupAlley about the makeup you noticed in different cities really got me thinking: haven't I read about looks that are supposedly "truly such-and-such-a-city," and haven't I noticed that sometimes, certain trends truly pervade one city more than another? So I decided to do another $20 face, and one that was inspired by a look that is supposedly "truly New York City": a super-minimalist look with a pop of lipstick. I noticed this on a lot of ladies from sites like IntoTheGloss, and it really struck me: they were apparently wearing nothing but brow pencil and lipstick, and wow, it shouldn't have worked for me, but...it did. The textures of the skin, the bareness of the eyes, the simple hair...just amazing. This isn't a look I'd wear every day--it's a little TOO unmade-up for me--but I think I'll keep it in my emergency bag for the foreseeable future.

I didn't do a tutorial for this look because there isn't a whole lot to it. I used the NYC Smooth Skin Liquid Makeup ($2) in 676 Ivory as both a foundation and a concealer. It's not a product I would highly recommend: it's so thick you have to spatula it out of the bottle, it provides hardly any coverage, and it oxidized almost 2 shades darker after about 30 minutes. But it's cheap and provides the barely-there coverage I needed for this look, so I went with it. Then I filled in my brows with the La Femme brow pencil ($1.50) in Taupe and applied the TINIEST (and I mean TINIEST) amount of Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing mascara ($3.50) to my upper lashes in quick, feathery strokes. I wanted to add a bit of glow to my skin, since natural-but-healthy skin seems to be the NYC look, so I used Boots No 7 High Lights ($10) on my cheeks and under the arch of my brow. Finally, I decided to fill my lips in with a NYX Long lip pencil ($1.50) in Plush Red, since they're smooth and pigmented without being hyper-drying, but still give a matte look on their own. You can skip this step if you want a look more like the uber-minimalist one in the left picture (where I was clearly testing how Plush Red would photograph.

The changes I'll make for my emergency bag are that I'll carry some Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer ($42) instead of the NYC foundation, I'll probably take a more travel-friendly highlighter or pump out a sample of the Boots one, and I'll switch out the pencil to have some variety.